Press release

Paraguay begin South American Championship campaign with win

Paraguay celebrate as they seal a straight sets win over Uruguay on Tuesday

Cuiabá, Brazil, September 20, 2011 - Brazil and Argentina continued their winning ways on the second day of the Men’s South American Volleyball Championship while Paraguay began their campaign with victory on Tuesday as qualifying for the FIVB Volleyball Men’s World Cup continued in Cuiaba, Brazil.

The eventual champions will qualify for the World Cup, set to be held in Japan from November 20 to December 4, with the top three ranked teams from that tournament earning a berth to the London 2012 Olympic Games next year.

Argentina and Brazil both sealed straight set wins over Colombia and Chile respectively while Paraguay beat rivals Uruguay by the same margin.

Paraguay v UruguayParaguay celebrated an important victory against Uruguay in a strategic fight for the final standings, seeing them off 3-0 (25-22, 25-22, 26-24). Paraguay’s good reception and spike was the difference between the two sides as Luis Riveros top scored for the victors with 14 points.

Argentina v ColombiaColombia came into their match against Argentina with confidence after a great win over Venezuela on day one, but the Argentineans quickly took control in the match as Federico Pereyra ledwith 16 points in the straight sets (25-18, 25-17, 25-20).

"We played better than first match,” he said. “We demanded more. This helps us to keep improving before the matches against Venezuela and Brazil", Federico Pereyra says.

Brazil v ChileHosts Brazil achieved an easy victory against Chile on their second day of the tournament, with the Chileans yet to pick up a win. Attack was key for Brazil and they took full advantage of an error-strewn match from the visitors sealing a 3-0 p (25-21, 25-19, 25-10) win in front of more than 6,000 noisy fans.